Princess Paint picked pastel

After five long and arduous years, it was finally time to paint Sarah's room. The elephant in the room, so to speak, was the wallpaper. Dad's theory, use the paper tiger to properly remove the wallpaper prior to painting. Mom's theory, enough Kilz and the paper disappears.

As you can see, one coat of Kilz is not going to make the paper disappear. So we cracked open gallon number two, put on a fresh pot of coffee and started the process again.

This time though, I called on Sean to provide us with some comic relief. We told him he was comic relief, really he was brought in as a running back. That's football speak for a gopher. However Sean jumped at the chance to be a running back, so euphemism it was.

Sarah, project manager in training, never stopped asking about out timeline. Saturday was the first deadline, her girlfriends were coming over to spend the night and she wanted her room completed by then. Start on Tuesday - I could be done by Saturday. That gave me a nice casual time line. A little paint on this wall, a little paint on that wall.

Alas, there was to be no leisure painting. Sarah was determined that Tuesday was paint day and that was it. I then instructed our runner to get Princess Paint her own roller. Princess Paint then went to work. We were on coat number two of the primer. But already she was getting excited. Five years is a long time to wait for paint.

I would like to say that I looked and looked for a house that was decorated specifically for the furniture that I was bringing with me. That's not quite the story, but it is how everything turned out, everything that is except Sarah's room.

Her room was decorated in primary colors, and Princess Paint was more of a pastel princess than a primary princess. She was very patient though and only began politicking for paint this past year. Hush, I would tell her - we'll get it done. Trying to bypass mom she would ask her dad. His answer was when the wallpaper comes down, the paint will go up.

As you can see, Mom didn't wait for the paper to come down, instead she waited until dad left town. Comfortably watching the snow fall in North Dakota while attending Army school, her father has no idea what we've been up to. After all, I am well positioned to claim innocence. I didn't buy the paint or the tools. I just applied the paint to flat surfaces so it could dry. Paint that is still in it's can, never dries.

After happily announcing that all the blue tape has been removed, and commissioning her brother to help put everything back where it belongs, Sarah is eager to go to Target and pick out some accessories. Her Aunt Debi has provided her with the means to decorate, in the form of a gift card. I told Sarah that I would double her money if she got an A on her test. Fifteen dollars for a B and I'll provide transportation to Target for a C. If she get's a D or an F she'll have to try to talk Grandma into bringing her home from Target. A grade lower than a C does not qualify for round trip transportation.